This is copy and pasted from last content patch we had. Names have changed a bit. Please note I don't know what all the patch file names are as mirrors aren't up yet for me to check against. Also this guide assumes you want to reinstall the PTR hence step 1.

For Mac OS X replace .exe with .app

0) If you are reinstalling drag any files starting with "WoW-0.3.0" in your "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder to a safe location EG the desktop.

1) Delete any and all "wowtest" and "World of Warcraft Public Test" folders you may have.

2) If on an OS that allows you to do so go to your Live Wow folder and right click the wow.exe program there. Select "Run as Adminstrator". Log into a toon. Then log out. This step is to make sure your registry is all up to date

3) Run the downloader file (WoW-3.0.1.8874-PTR-US-Installer-downloader.exe) . It will ask you for a location for where to put the "3.0.1.8874 US PTR Installer" folder. Please remember where you put this folder for the next step.

Skip this if you already have this downloaded from before or have downloaded it from a mirror.

4) After the downloader has completed downloading into the folder "3.0.1.8874 US PTR Installer" open that folder and run "Blizzard Updater.exe"

6) The installer will install the 3.01 PTR inside a folder called "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder. This folder should be installed outside your live wow folder.

7) Open that folder and open the launcher (Launch.exe or Launcher.app)

8) The launcher will download some updated tools and files in a "patch.mpq" file in the wow public test folder.

9) Run the PTR from that folder by opening the Green Test icon. If on Vista you might want to do a Right Click-> Run as administrator. The version number down the bottom of the PTR login screen should read "Version 0.01 (8874)"

10) Login and it should download the downloader for WoW-0.3.0.10522-enUS-ptr-patch.exe . This is 1.4GBish in size.

If you've already downloaded it from a mirror or had it backed up from before just quit the downloader and copy that file into your "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder (replacing the one the downloader started to download).

11) If the Launcher from the "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder isn't running then open it. This should automatically open WoW-0.3.0.10522-enUS-ptr-downloader.exe program or the Background Downloader.exe .

This will allow do a integrity check on the file you downloaded. After it's
done it will automatically run WoW-0.3.0.10522-enUS-ptr-patch.exe to patch the PTR.

12) If it's your first time installing you'll need to download a seperate updater for each build that has been pushed out to the PTR.

A build is like a mini patch. Its where the devs activate new features and, put out bug fixes and the like. You can't login without being at the latest build. Each build updater can only update the build before it.

Details of the builds are in the thread below. Your patience with this is appreciated. Always start up the PTR from the Launcher.exe inside the "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder.

Just have some patience and wait for it to update. It will repeat the process of opening the Launcher , downloading an update , applying until it is at the latest build.

Pay attention to the top of the launcher window where the last 5 digits of the title is the build number. From now I will not be updating this post with the build numbers so just see my replies to this thread as to what build is the latest.

13) If reinstalling take the files you dragged to the desktop in Step 0 and put em back in the "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder. Close down any PTR patch updaters before starting tho. Then start up the Launcher.exe from the "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder

14) Wait for the Launcher to completely update to the latest build. The patching process will repeat until it is at the latest build. You can see which build the PTR is at by looking at the top of the launcher window where the title of the window is. You can confirm what the latest build is by checking the PTR forums or MMO champion

The last 5 digits of this will be the build number. Just wait until the PTR launcher has stopped updating.

From there you should be golden.

IF YOU STILL HAVE A PTR FOLDER FROM LAST TIME

For the last few PTR's Blizzard have actually made it possible to update your Old PTR folder. That's right you don't have to wipe your "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder at the end of a PTR phase.

You can just update it simply by opening the "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder and opening the Launcher.exe inside that folder. The Launcher should automatically download a patch installer to upload your old Public Test Realm folder to the new PTR.

The PTRs are using a new system wherein a permanent copy of the game client can be kept on your hard drive. As you connect to the Public Test Realm, the latest build of the PTR will be automatically downloaded to your computer. There's no more need to delete your WoWTest folder between PTRs or download new builds! It will all be handled from this one installation from now on.

__________________
tuba_man on Apple test labs : "I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere. Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room. If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete. Someone else must remove the cats. All have iPods." (http://community.livejournal.com/tec...t/2018070.html)

Log back in as quick as you can seems to be the fix going around the forums !

FIX FOR ERROR : WORLD OF WARCRAFT NOT FOUND PLEASE MAKE SURE IT IS PROPERLY INSTALLED

You get this error when you have registry keys missing that tell other programs where you have World of Warcraft installed.

Should be simple to fix :

Go to your World of Warcraft folder. Right click the wow.exe there. Go Run as Administrator (or similar option). Once at the login screen log in and log into a toon. Then log out and quit the live client.

Now try opening the PTR from the Launcher inside your "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder.

If that doesn't work you may need to look into other ways of updating the registry

FIX FOR THIS ERROR WHILE PATCHING :

Q u o t e:

It requires a version of "WoW.exe" older than <<PTR VERSION>>, but you already have version <<LIVE VERSION>>.

Your Registry is confusing Live with the PTR so is hence attempting to update the PTR to your Live WOW Install.

This is why PTR version numbers begin with 0 - you can't add +1 to something and get 0 after all (at least for non negative numbers)

Should be simple to fix. Go to your World of Warcraft folder. Right click the wow.exe there. Go Run as Administrator (or similar option). Once at the login screen log in and log into a toon. Then log out and quit the live client.

Now try opening the PTR from the Launcher inside your "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder.

If you get one similar to it but mentioning two PTR build versions do the same thing except also do the same thing for the wow.exe inside your "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder

replace "Microsoft.VC80.CRT.manifest" file in your PTR directory with one from your Live directory.

SOLUTION FOR ERROR "WORLD OF WARCRAFT COULD NOT BE FOUND PLEASE MAKE SURE THE GAME IS PROPERLY INSTALLED"

Usaully you get this error when you have registry keys missing that tell other programs where you have World of Warcraft installed.

Should be simple to fix. Go to your World of Warcraft folder. Right click the wow.exe there. Go Run as Administrator (or similar option). Once at the login screen log in and log into a toon. Then log out and quit the live client.

Now try opening the PTR from the Launcher inside your "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder.

Most of the times this happens when you've downloaded the patch for a build but haven't run the Launcher to update the Launcher yet.

Most of the time it's fixed by :

Open the Launcher inside your "World of Warcraft Public Test" folder.

If you're able to do it on your OS Right click the Launcher and go "Run as adminstrator" or set it properties to do so

It should then download a small patch.mpq file then launch the downloader to start downloading.

SECRET ABOUT THE MAC DOWNLOADER :

You can look inside it for a torrent file

1) Right click the downloader app
2) Go "Show Package Contents"
3) In the window that comes up open the "Contents" folder then the "Resources" folder inside it
4) Copy the file "downloader.torrent" to the desktop.
5) Take that torrent file and put it into your favourite torrent client \o/

__________________
tuba_man on Apple test labs : "I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere. Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room. If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete. Someone else must remove the cats. All have iPods." (http://community.livejournal.com/tec...t/2018070.html)

The PTR only just come out. As far as I know the diff files haven't been released yet. These are files that tell the addon authors what's changed in 3.3. Yes there's tools out there to tell them directly.

The point I'm making here is that's early days for addons on the PTR. They may work they might not work.

The best thing is to do these x things below :

1) Don't install too many. Take a few like one or two.

2) Learn the site where the author posts beta updates to . For curse that will be either Curseforge or Wowace. Wow interface will be this site.

3) Expect it to break when you install it. Make sure you turn on "Load Out of Date addons"

5) If they do break make sure you provide decent feedback to the author. Include a error report if it comes up in game. You could also use a bug grabbing error like Bugsack/BugGrabber or Swatter to capture them.

If there is a ticket system submit a ticket there. If possible put down how you made the error appear. Remember nothing frustrates a developer more than a ticket submitted with "It does not work" as the sole problem. Be verbose. Be helpful. Get on the IRC channel if necessary (we're a mostly friendly bunch who hang out on irc.freenode.org #wowuidev channel)

Remember that by using addons on the PTR you're pretty much paving the way for the new versions that will come out for them to work once 3.3 goes live. If they do break make sure you give the addon authors a little helping hand a ?

>_>

<_<

Well that wasn't as brief as I wanted it to be. Awwweeee shut up Torhal

__________________
tuba_man on Apple test labs : "I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere. Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room. If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete. Someone else must remove the cats. All have iPods." (http://community.livejournal.com/tec...t/2018070.html)

Often times over the course of the PTR Blizzard will push a new build out to the PTR.

The best course of action is to open the Launcher inside your World of Warcraft Public Test folder.

This may download a small .mpq file in your World of Warcraft Public Test folder then kick up the appopriate downloader.

Back when I was actively answering posts on the PTR I was seriously answering at least 2 posts a day when people were having problems installing with this advice. Also it's been confirmed by a Blizzard rep that's pretty much their preferred way to push out new builds.

If it doesn't work for you you might need to download it from a mirror

__________________
tuba_man on Apple test labs : "I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere. Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room. If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete. Someone else must remove the cats. All have iPods." (http://community.livejournal.com/tec...t/2018070.html)

So no It's not patching over your Live Data. As long as you keep the two installs seperate (ie the PTR gets installed into totally seperate folder from Live) you should be fine. When you install the PTR you make a second installation of World of Warcraft which has no connection to Live

__________________
tuba_man on Apple test labs : "I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere. Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room. If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete. Someone else must remove the cats. All have iPods." (http://community.livejournal.com/tec...t/2018070.html)

While a PTR is up it will go through many "builds". These builds are where the developers finish coding or changing some stuff and are like "Ok let's push that out and see what feedbacks we get from players". They then take the PTR down for Maintenance and usually apply the new build (not always tho).

New builds bring things like new items and new spells and stuff. When the PTR opens not all the new features listed in the patch notes are ready yet. Those come in ... yes you guessed it a later build. They're also used to get client side bug fixes out so if someone reports a bug and it gets fixed a new build brings that bug fix out to the PTR community.

Ok with me so far ?

Now if you're just installing the PTR for the first time and 4 new builds have been pushed out to the PTR yes you will have to download a patcher for each one. Cheer up tho once you're all updated and as long as you login to the PTR regularly you shouldn't have to do it again. Just do the normal download a new build once they post one to the PTR.

__________________
tuba_man on Apple test labs : "I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere. Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room. If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete. Someone else must remove the cats. All have iPods." (http://community.livejournal.com/tec...t/2018070.html)